I love reading and learning about Asian culture and its rich history. China certainly has no shortage of either! When you mix that with the genealogy of a family, you’ve got my interest. Growing up, I listened to my mother’s stories of our ancestors as she uncovered their secrets while studying our family tree. While there are no Chinese branches on mine, there is a wonderful Asian twist that has given me a lifelong fascination with the Orient. That’s why books like Sweet Mandarin always manage to grab me and hang on.
Sweet Mandarin is more than a true story. It is several true stories all woven into one amazing family history that is author Helen Tse’s. Starting with the story of her great grandparents, it works its way from generation to generation, giving a beautiful account of what makes her family unique. Helen Tse’s family history contains a long line of fascinating people who struggled to work their way out of difficult situations, regardless of what they were “supposed” to do. The story starts with a great grandfather who began his own soy sauce factory and the family that suffered the consequences of his success. The bulk of the focus is on the women in Tse’s family; strong, brave women who break the bonds of China’s traditions, all the while coveting their culture like a valuable pearl. Tse’s family boasts three generations of restaurant owners, all having stories that will inspire and entertain.
Sweet Mandarin is a book that will appeal to a very wide audience – men, women, even young adult. Will it ever appear on the silver screen? I wouldn’t be surprised, and I certainly hope to hear there’s a movie contract in the works. And I thought my family was fascinating…
Want to win your own copy of Sweet Mandarin?
3 Ways to Win:
1.) Leave a comment telling me a little something about your family history. (I promise I won’t tell.) Where are you from? Do you know your roots, or are they a secret? Have fun with your comment! Winners are randomly chosen, but if the name drawn doesn’t respond, I choose the next winner by comment.
2.) Email subscribers are entered into this and all future giveaways, for as long as their subscription is active. Simply place your email address in the little white box at the top of my sidebar on the right. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)
3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Come back and leave me a Comment with a link to your blog post.
Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Friday, September 5, 2008, to enter.
i am chinese, and I’m living the “west”, and while growing up, there’s always this mentality that the western standards are the way to go – i.e. food, way of living, etc etc that we kind of neglected the asian part of our culture. But as i grow older, and am actually living in the states, I’m much, much, much more appreciative of all things “East” and will definitely be bringing up my child to be proud of his/her heritage and to be a well-rounded individual in terms of culture and different ways of living.
One of my ancestors fell overboard from the Mayflower and had to be rescued!
This sounds like a good book.
My Mom is really into researching our family history – we’re basically Polish but of course the borders changed a lot through the years! This book sounds great – thanks for the chance!
My family is English and German and my husband’s family is from India.
I have a european back ground. That’s about it.
My mother grew up in Germany living through WWII.
this looks like it would be a good read
I would love to give this a read! As for my family history, my father is from the Philippines and my mother is of Eurpean descent. My father (a nurse) immigrated first to La, then Tx, and to Ca, before leaving for Canada – where he met my mother. I know more about his heritage than my maternal side of the family, mainly, i think, because they immigrated so long ago. Thank you for the chance to win!!
I would love to read this book!
A little something about my heritage…I’m English, Scottish, Welsh and second generation Canadian.
My grandfather has the most colourful history of anyone I know! He was a pilot for the RCAF (Royal Canadian Airforce) in the First World War.
He was once shot down by the Japanese, survived the crash and went in the direction of voices talking english. I guess he was shot down in the middle of fighting between the Japanese and English speaking soldiers.
He was also shot down by the Germans (I know, he was shot down a lot lol). This time he was taken Prisoner of War and was the highest ranking prisoner. One day, he decided to get the guards drunk (how, I have no idea) and he taught them to sing God Save the King and as a result, grandpa was courtmartialed by the Germans.
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop lol
Thanks
in my genealogy there is a relative who crossed on the boat with george washington.
I have been doing a lot of reading this summer (surgery), so I’ve had 6 wks off of work. I can go back only 4 generations in our family. Wish I could go back one more, as my great-grandmother was Cherokee and we have had trouble finding any birth records for her. I am very interested in finding out more about my Native American heritage. I just read two of Amy Tan’s novels and one by Anchee Min. I will definitely love reading this novel.
adopted – found out mom is from Montreal, Canada
This books sounds great. Count me in!
I have Scottish roots for the most part. My Dad was always sure to keep us attached to that culture growing up, and it stuck — it’s not uncommon for me to play bagpipe music around the house while the kids play.
Thanks!
Megret
musesofmegret (at) gmail (dot) com
I don’t know much about my family history. Except my great grandmother was full blooded American Indian and my father’s family is from Germany.
I am going to live and work in China next year!!! I am so excited. I would love to win this book! Great giveaway.
My parents were born in Indonesia – they were Dutch Indonesians. We went to the Netherlands when I was six months old.
Well, Mom says that her father told her about a relative who was a bodyguard to Kaiser Wilhelm. I think that’s as close as we can claim to a “brush with greatness”.
I immigrated to the US from the east when I was 12 years old. I’d be interested in reading this book!
Here’s the link to my post:
http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-giveaways_03.html
Thank you for the contest…The book looks intriguing!
My Grandfather was a stowaway on a ship from Russia & made his way to North Dakota…finally settling back in Washington State to work in the fruit industry.
I’m like a dozen different nationalities including French, Chinese, American Indian and Spanish.
Both of my parents were born in Arkansas, but met and married in California. I’ve lived in six different states…so far.
I am english, german and scotch-irish. The most interesting thing we’ve found out about my heritage is that on my mother’s side I am related to General George Custer. (Now he wasn’t a nice man so it kind of stinks but all the same it’s very interesting!)
I am quite the mutt…Italian and English on one side, Polish, Lithuanian and, we thought, Austrian on the other. I recently discovered that although the “other” side had lived in Austria, my forbear was actually Italian! My, was my mother shocked to hear that! (But it explains our family dinners with way too much food!)
My great grandfather was a native American cheif and my great grandmother was an native american princess.
I’m from the Philippines.
such great comments,, my gparents camefrom england & ireland
Ah, my roots are fairly straightforward. As far as we know, my mum’s family is all Irish all the way back. My Dad’s family is all Slovak. Pretty easy.
Now my husband, and therefore our son is a true “mutt”. He is part Asian (the western side), part European (with about 6 countries mixed in), part Native American, and, although they just allude to it, we believe part African American.
We have taught our son to be proud of his 4 continent heritage because we believe he is truly lucky to be a living example of the American melting pot!
My direct ancestors (on both my father’s and mother’s side) arrived in the US in the same. My father’s ancestors were farmers who fled Ireland during the Great Potato Famine of 1848. They landed in Canada first, then crossed the border in 1849 and farmed potatoes in Maine. (Do what you know, I guess!) My mom’s immigrant ancestor was a Scottish blacksmith who came to the US in 1849 during the California gold rush. He traveled all the way to California and found one lousy nugget of gold. After that failure he returned to New England to live — but he made that nugget into a wedding ring that’s been handed down in our family ever since.
count me in
we just adopted our little girl from China, so I would dearly love to win this.
My family is Polish on mom’s side and English Irish Scottish and French Canadian on Dad’s…some of his ancestors came here about 400 years ago..
Husband’s family is Polish and Italian…
I’m Italian, not that interesting, but I am fascinated by Asian culture, so this would be good to read
I do not know much about my family history. I have a cousin that is in the process of doing the family tree on my mom’s side, so hopefully I will know that side soon.
I am always happy to hear stories of other peoples’ history and cultures. I know this would be a wonderful win.
Thank-you for the opportunity,
I am a first generation Canadian living in the United States. Both my parents emigrated from Germany. My mom as a child, and my dad as an adult. My mom left East Germany at the age of 7, where they actually had to escape in the middle of the night, by getting past the Berlin Wall.
My husband’s great grandfather used to howl at the moon!
One branch of my family tree goes directly back to Emperor Charlemagne.The other branches have not been traced so far back.
Mostly Portuguese who settled in Hawaii several generations ago and Irish,but I have family that is just about everything under the sun.
Maybe folklore, but it is said my FIL was smuggled out of Greece in a basket.
We just found out a couple years ago that we have some Italian blood in our family because of an adoption about 100 years ago.
Proven fact: an ancestor was granted a large oak tree covered tract of land near Quebec City by King Louis XIV.
The more the merrier. Learning about different cultures is always a trip.
My family has been in “The New World” since the 1500′s. Our ancestors were not allowed to marry in the nations so they came to America.
cherylfrancisco@hotmail.com
A great-grandparent was from Eastern Europe, but we don’t know where exactly – (my guess is Transylvania).
I’m a mutt from the Slavic Countries…you name it, I came from there,
My family history has been traced back to the Revolutionary war. We are also related to Kit Carson the explorer in our large family tree.
Having been to China this book will bring me back there as I read it.
Traced from the Ellis Island website, Grandma came over from Sgnseka through Rotterdam.
growing up, i didn’t care to learn about my heritage. all i know is that my parents are from mainland china and that my mom and her family escaped to taiwan when she was little. they then moved to the us. i was born here in the us.